paint defect in new car
 

got my 3.0d LCI last Monday, found 2 paint defect spot, sizing 3~5mm diameter, 1 in front bonet & 1 in lower tailgate. its appear like dirt stick to the paint while it is wet. sent to dealer today, they said need to sent to local paint shop to re-paint. I don't feel good with this, not confident that the local paint shop can get the same quality of factory paint as the dealer claim.
What is your opinion ? should i sent to re paint, or just accept as it is, or i should ask for others option (what option can i ask for) ? kindly pls advise.

other defects,
1. HID headlight (left) inner cover missing - new headlight on order
2. lower tailgate inner plactic cover broken clip - part on order
3. driver side door rattle - fixed today.

what a bad luck, not a happy man.

my new X5 will go in to the local paint shop for one whole week this coming Monday, to repaint to cover the defects. The dealer not even care about my concern nor BMW australia. Suck BMW, no more BMW for my next car, after 10 years of proud BMW owner, after owning 4 BMW, I'm enough, no more.

that's a shame. when i had a defect in a newly delivered car (once out of 9 BMWs), the dealer couldn't do enough to make sure it was fixed to my satisfaction.

yes given it was a brand new car, i wouldn't accept a "local shop" quick fix! you should escalate your issue to BMW Australia.

2 out of my 3 previous BMW has some problems, but all the problem occur few months after and were fix under warranty. I would be happy to accept it because we are not buying BMW for reliability, everyone know that.
But the defects on this new X5 are ridiculous, I don't mean to be pedantic, all the defects are appear cosmetically (obviously) which can be discover with simple visual inspection. Why the BMW factory "well trained" QC personel didn't inpect the car ? why the dealer didn't run a pre-delivery inspection & fix all the defects before deliver the car to end user ? why they delivered a defective car which let the customer wasting their time sending the car "many time" to the dealer to get fix ?
i have asking for others option rather than repaint to cover the defects, but the dealer service advisor said "no ! the paint is not up to the standard, we have to repaint it !" What a shame ! BMW produce a car that "not up to the standard" & deliver it to the customer :dunno: ? can u believe it ?

SHIT ON ME !!
the dealer call me today to pick up my car, said that my car has been 110% beautifully fixed. When i go to the dealer, i discover that the dodgy paint shop make the whole thing worst ! i discover within the 1st minute that 2 spot of sand stick on the surface & covered with the new paint, further more, 1 spot with a finger print mark ! the paint at all the edge of panel are very thick & the surface appear to be wavy & not smooth ! Shit on me, shame on BMW !
i reject to take my car, the service manager said they will call in an "expert" to inspect the paint, what can i do ? what can i do ? what a bad luck !

that sucks mate..this is totally unacceptable! did they give you a loaner whilst the car is getting fixed?

Call BMW in Melbourne and try and speak to someone in management. That is unacceptable.

Picked our new LCI up last Monday and had a couple of small bits in paint but should come out with a good polish.

David

congrats David! any pics? how does it compared to your pre-LCI X5 3.0d?

Gearbox is much better so far, nice and smooth. Fuel consumption, need to run it a bit longer but seems to be coming better. Miss the TV and voice control which were standard on other X5.

So far so good.

David

nice one mate...probably faster as well given it has more power together with the new 8 speed gearbox.

i thought TV is standard in the innovation pack.

Now a $2800 extra on all models

the dealer service manager call me on Saturday morning that they will change the 2 defective panels for me swap from a brand new car. and told me i will be able to get my car on Monday afternoon. On Monday 4pm, he call me again said that my car wasn't ready yet, they need to send to body shop to realign the gap after panels installed, the car will be ready by today. I have call him 2pm today, and now he told me that they need to polish the car because it is new panels, and the car wouldn't be ready until Thursday evening.
That is crap, i have a bad feeling that they are not honest to me, do you think need to take 4 days to change 2 panels with few bolts ? they might sent my car to repaint for the 2nd time. i can't imagine what they have done to my brand new car, how many more damages they have created to the car. This is the way that Auto Classic treat their customer, i'm hopeless now without any help.
I have sent the complaint to BMW Australia on 1st September, they reply that the consultant will call me back soon, no phone call receive, re-sent the complaint again on 17th September, they reply that action will be taken within 24 working hours, no email nor phone call receive as well. I call them 2:30pm today, they said sorry, we will arrange some one to call you immediately, 4pm now, no one return call. hopeless & painfull. very bad experience of a car purchase, the worst i ever have.
they have give me a 323i as loader for a week, change to X5 48i last friday, i will suggest they keep the car and pay me full refund if it is not done properly within reasonable time this round, i will try Audi or Merc, i can imagine, nothing will be worst than all these crap that BMW given to a faithful fan & customer.

Does any one know the name and contact number of the Manager of BMW Australia ? I have called BMW Australia again this morning (since they didn't return call as promise after 22 days of complaint and call), but the customer support who handle my case was not friendy nor helpful. I was try to ask to talk to her manager but she refuse to transfer me to the manager nor provide me his name, she told me that I don't need to talk to other person.
i was almost give up now, no luck, but learn a good lesson this time. I suppose to buy another 5 to 6 new BMW for the rest of my life but i have just learn what i should not buy now. Hope my experience and story will help other forum member and friend, who plan to buy a new BMW.

I am so sorry to hear about this. Some people really just have bad luck.

Try contacting Stavros Yallouridis, who is the Managing Director of BMW Australia.

You could also try Piers Scott who is BMW Australia’s PR & Corporate Communications Manager.

Maybe the PR guy will say it's got nothing to do with me, but you can tell him it will have when you go to Today Tonight or A Current Affair and explain the shoddy service you have been receiving from their premium brand.

It sounds like your dealer is really poor and I'd take it up with BMW Australia via the contacts mentioned by Terry.S.

BTW: I've had four BMWs over a period of 15 years or so without any notable problems at all, with either the vehicles or the dealers.

BMW Australia doen't help at all in the whole process. their customer care ppl were very unfriendly, they never call me or drop me an email respond to my queries. When i call them, they even don't want to talk properly to me, don't want to tranfer the call to their manager, they keep on telling me that they will work out with the dealer, but no progress seen from that. they were just hopeless to me.
luckily i manage to force the dealer to swap the 2 panels from other new car for me finally. after a big fight with the dealer, after 2 weeks my car in the dealer workshop.
my car going for warranty repair again yesterday, door rattle came back again, driver side door trim come out every time i close the door, the steering wheel lether trim peel off (since delivery, they only agree to change for me now). hopefully can get it back today.

I wouldn't bother with BMW Australia's customer care people. If the problems persist you should go straight to the people mentioned by Terry.S and with the threat of going to a TV current affairs programme. I'm sure Western Australia should also have some sort of government body that deals with consumer complaints. In NSW it's called FairTrading. If your X5 is a lemon you need to complain long and loud to everyone you can while the warranty is still in place.

I have try to call the CEO, but the telephonist never want to tranfer me to. I fail to convince her to let me talk to the CEO or any others manager, they said they only able to transfer my line back to the dodgy customer care. i gave up finally.
the car is not lemon to me, other than the poor build quality and lack of quality control, and un-proffesional after sales service, the mechanical is fantastic and the design is good. i like to drive it except all those annoying rattle noise came from the door, the aircon vent in centre console and cargo cover, i can said it is a good designed car but poorly build. This is not happen to my previous 3 bimmers

To me "poor build quality and lack of quality control" means lemon. It's not a design thing just the characteristics of an individual example like yours which doesn't sound good to me. The build quality on the vast majority of X5s appears to be fine but the odd one isn't good.

Hopefully the dealer will get it sorted but if the problems persist you need to write to the CEO via good old snail mail. They will never let you talk to him. Good luck with it.

Thanks for the advice, i will write a long letter attention to the CEO if more problem come again (hopefully this will never happen) :D.

i have dealt with BMW Australia's customer relations girls, and found them to be very helpful and punctual in getting back to me.

we have at least 3 e70,s and an x6 where i work.

i bought my secondhand e53 based on the experiences of these people and my time as a passenger in there cars, and to date am very happy with the decision.

i thought in time i would upgrade to an e70, however i,m not sure now, they seem a lot bulkier on the outside with minimal increase in interior space.

i see on some forums people are saying they liked the e53 better.

which suits me hehe

of course with all due respect to the OP we are only hearing one side of the story

Unless he is lying or exaggerating about the defects, turn around time, and customer politeness and response time what is the other side?

i,m saying that from my experience with BMW customer help i got a pleasant response, if someone else has a different experience it may in part be due to the manner in which they approached the problem.

I've had paint issues, boot rattles, cracked lower tailgate inner cover like yours since the very first day I took delivery as brand new. I have eliminated boot rattles with silicon sprays and felt pads myself. Got the dealer to fix the paint issues. There are still very intermittent issues with the car and it doesn't happen when I take it to the dealer, very annoying. Wrote numerous emails to BMW and now after 2 years I'm still battling to get intermittent issues resolved. Bad experience buying a BMW.